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Originally Posted by tumhalad2
Okay, but does he possess the attributes of the traditional Christian god or not? Is he omnipresent, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent? If you say no, then how can we understand Eru? What kind of god is he, really?
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Maybe. I would say 'yes,' 'yes, and 'possibly,' as I'm not exactly sure whose benevolence we are discussing.
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I have no idea what "god" may or may not be. Personally, I see no reason to believe in any supernatural claims. What I'm interested in is how Tolkien depicted Eru, given that he was a Catholic writer, and whether his depiction of Eru takes from the Xtian god as traditionally understood.
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Understood. What I think may be an issue is that two Christians, rubbing shoulders for 50 years in the same church may not have the same conception of god. We can take some good guesses about what the Professor thought, but I suspect even his writings, as even they *really* don't depict with a 100% certainty what was in his head - there's always some loss in the translation.